Some people can sleep anywhere, even while traveling. 
But this guy amazed me.
Don’t you see him? Look closer.
I’m about to board a 14-hour flight and, I gotta say, I’m jealous. Wish me luck!
Archive for the ‘Beyond the Huangpu’ Category
Asleep
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010Flood
Thursday, June 24th, 2010Yesterday’s Shanghai Daily headline read: “Deadly Southern China Rains Displace Millions.”
I can believe it, after we spent three days last week in Yangshuo (Guangxi Province, in the south, although not where the worst problems are) biking and kayaking in the few moments between downpours and, yes, during the downpours.
Here is the dam that my son crossed on his bike last fall in drier times:
No wonder people in the fields had been warning us, waving their arms and calling out 洪水，hong shui, which (as we came to learn) means “flood” and even “deluge.”
We had already made it across several small bridges,
so we kept answering that we just wanted to take a look. We figured we could always turn around.
As we proceeded, we noticed that not only the rice fields, but also the pomelo groves, were under water. 
People tending oxen moved them onto higher ground.
Shortly before the dam, we stopped and asked a farmer if there was another place to cross further up. Yes, he said, there are two more bridges, but it’s hard to find the way. I’ll take you there.
And, amazingly enough, he did, leading us and our bikes across a cross-hatching of dikes around the rice fields, all of which was under water. At one point, the current (!) running across a field was so strong that he insisted that I hand over my bike to him. He took off his boots (the better to feel the slippery ground, I assume) and dragged my bike across. Then came back and insisted on taking my hand and dragging me across. Then repeated for my son’s bike, and finally for my son.
Eventually, we did find a bridge across the river and, before dark, we made it back to our hotel, tucked just below Moon-Gazing Mountain. (Note moon in mountain!)
Apparently, this was just the beginning of really serious rain. It’s been non-stop since we got home a week ago. I shudder to think about it. I am doing an anti-rain dance. I hope our farmer is okay.
And the Kids!
Sunday, March 28th, 2010All told, in three days in Jiangxi Province, we visited two schools, the You Shan Primary School in Zhen Tou Town and the You Ting Primary School in Fu Chun Town. Of course the trip was all about seeing those kids — shy,
curious,
polite (just about any child I gave something to immediately replied, xie xie, ayi, “thank you, auntie,”) attentive to their schoolwork (and maybe near-sighted?),
she's copying characters that are way more complicated than any I can write, sigh!
playful and rambunctious.
Their classrooms are crowded,
as are their dormitory rooms. (More than 150 primary students live at one school during the week, as their village homes are too far to return to daily.)
boys' dorm room, taken with flash -- actually much darker
And how about these next three? They’re the ones who have already come to Shanghai for heart surgery and recovered.
This girl, shown with Dr. Chen, her heart surgeon, is a little nervous — but who wouldn’t be, if a bus pulled up in front of your house and a group of strangers jumped out and paraded in to see you, flashing cameras as they went?
Here’s the second child we visited, 
shown with Dr. Chen and Christine Cullen, the Director of Heart to Heart — and his beaming mom.
And here’s a quiet 18-year-old, shown with his family, who solemnly brewed us all tea and then talked with Dr. Chen about his hopes and plans for college.
I could — and obviously have — go on and on. But I’m going to leave you now with these images.
Back to the Books
Saturday, March 27th, 2010At both schools we visited, we took along clothing (including lots of hats and scarves from my knitting group, the Shanghai Guild), blankets, and toys for the principal and teachers to distribute. But the main purpose was to follow up on monetary donations to purchase a library — in each case, the school’s first.. (A library can be donated for 15,000 rmb, or roughly US$2,000.)
Heart to Heart asks the schools to make the purchases for a good reason — they know what they can use. They want to avoid making direct donations that turn out not to be of use. (For example, check out these dusty computers and desks,
which I photographed through a broken window,
Apparently they were donated some time ago. “We don’t have anyone to teach how to use them,” the principal said.
Back to the books. There were some amusing titles
but apparently a great variety ranging from Chinese classics
to tales from overseas.
Christine Cullen, Heart to Heart’s founder and director, told of a visit to another school, where a student was giving a thank you speech, and then broke away from her text to exclaim in excitement, “The principal says that during our break we can come in and read the books as much as we want!”
Still, there is a lot to be desired. In each school, when we saw the actual library, the books were laid out on desktops.
Shelving would be a great addition.
And fixing the broken windows would be a help, not to mention making sure that the roof over the books doesn’t leak.
ceiling over corridor outside library
Lao Wai
Saturday, March 27th, 2010At the first school we visited, we foreign guests were ushered into a meeting room for greetings, a warm cup of tea, and for short speeches of thanks.
Zhen Tou Town, You Shan Primary School
We also took a peek at the books acquired with the money we were bearing (donated by Marks and Spencer, which has a big store in Shanghai now).
I lingered at the back of the room and finally poked my head outside to see what was going on. A group of kids in a classroom down the way was doing the same thing. Lao wai! they shrieked when they saw me, and darted back inside.
Not surprising — lao wai (老外）means “foreigner,” and they don’t usually see many of us. But in this case, it had an extra ironic twist: while 老 may have a connotation of respect, it literally means “old.” And there were quite a few old foreigners hanging around these kids — right over their heads. (Look to the right and up.)
Newton and Edison, I believe.
Elsewhere, at another school, we saw other important figures on the wall, including some foreigners, only some of whom I recognized:
Here’s the one I wonder about — is this really Stalin?
Who is this a portrait o
Chinese readers, I’m using a lifeline on this one!
A Whatchamacallit
Friday, March 26th, 2010What is that thing Kathy is sitting on, and why is she smiling, you ask.
Now erase that thought. I’ll get off and give you a turn to look at it.
Yep, under that grill and ash, there are live coals. Pretty nifty, eh?
I knew what it was, because I’d seen them variously put to use the night before. Here’s a shopkeeper using one to toast her hands and feet:
So, it had been pouring rain all day long, really grim
You Shan Primary School courtyard
so our little band couldn’t help getting damp and chilled 
as we slogged from house to house, village to village, school to school.
So naturally, when we stopped for dinner and were practically shaking, the staff brought in a couple of whatchamacallits and we took turns sitting on them.
We liked them so much, we decided to buy some. I got a pair and, all told, our group bought twenty (!) in fact. After all, we knew that once we’d delivered all our stuff, there would be
plenty of room on the bus. Can you imagine the conversation between our minder, who called the guy who supplied them?
“Liu, this is Zhang. Listen, I’ve got an emergency on my hands! These foreigners… Lord only knows what they’re thinking. Anyhow, can you possibly round me up a dozen or so bun-warmers? Yeah, I know, we make combs and fans and all sorts of carved geegaws, and what do they want? Yeah, I know, they’re too big for them and will probably fall off — look, just do your best, ok?”
“Whoa…, no problem! I’ll get on the horn with my no-good brother-in-law and tell him to bring all the ones he’s got over at the house. He owes me anyhow, remember how he got plastered and embarrassed me last month drinking all the bai jiu? What’d you tell them they’d have to pay? 100 rmb each?!? Whoohoo, a vacation in sunny Sanya is looking good!”
Sure enough, a guy showed up within the hour (after 7:00 pm, still raining) with a pile of the things on the back of a pickup truck.
So here’s one of my bun warmers, back home on the front stoop in Shanghai:
Well it seemed like a really, really good idea at the time.
PS: I was with Heart to Heart Shanghai, an amazing organization that brings kids in need of heart surgery to Shanghai and pays for their surgery. We were in rural Jiangxi Province to check up on some kids and their families post-surgery and bring them supplies… also books to schools that haven’t previously had any. If there’s anything you’d like to see or know about that — like photos of the adorable kids and their families, or the hillsides blooming with rapeseed flowers among the tea bushes – you just let me know.
To Market, To Market
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009Over the weekend, we honored the ancient tradition of going post-Christmas shopping, setting out for the leather market in Haining, a couple of hours’ drive from Shanghai. We really didn’t know what to expect, and I thought it might be akin to the yarn market — outdoor stalls, cats and kids roaming throughout.
No way. The snowy parking lot was jammed with cars and buses. It’s a huge, modern complex. Where to begin? Bags and clothing?
The shoe wing? 
Reviewing all possibilities on the map, we thought maybe we should check into the hotel.
Opting for Pelage Finery (only the best for my guys),
we headed to the escalator.
So many shops, all with different stuff in almost-familiar brands!
Son Christopher got a Piraida leather jacket for his new life in California,
and John got a Gabbanie (not modeled),
while Alex selected a bag, shoes, and a belt.
Here I am, keeping toasty in a down-filled “Mexican” jacket.
Time flies. I was forced to forego the fur wing, only getting a quick look at some of the more outlandish fashions,
And sadly, we didn’t set foot in the Bundesrepublic Deutschiand.
(We are certain that there was no Bundesrepublik in 1828, and pretty sure that there never was a Kaiser Abdul Hamid!)
But there’s always next year! By that time, the high-speed train will be up and running and we could make Haining in 20 minutes.
Elsewhere
Saturday, November 14th, 2009So where have I been?
I’m gonna let you guess. And I’m not cheating — I was in China, although I found this city to be full of surprises.
Such as: while I was still on the ground on the plane, the young lady sitting next to me murmured into her mobile phone so softly that at first I wondered what she was doing.
And, once I arrived, I noticed that people quietly lined up to get on the subway. See?
I’ve never seen a temple so busy as the Longshan Temple on Saturday morning. People of all ages were offering prayers
and some were tossing red fortune-telling crescents that landed with a clack.
Tables were piled high with offerings of food and flowers
including a can of Coke and a roll of Mentos!
We went nuts over the night markets and all the stalls of street food, chowing down on sesame noodles and passing on skewers of grilled congealed pigs’ blood. Alex couldn’t wait for a manguo bing (huge concoction of sliced mango and sweetened condensed milk over shaved ice)
But here was the biggest surprise, something we can’t find in Shanghai.
John about to chomp a sesame bagel
Figured it out yet? If not, I’ll leave a couple more hints. The biggest treasure in the museum’s enormous collection seems to be a cabbage. Well, it’s very realistic and carved from jade (no photos allowed).
And although the trademark tall skyscraper is an elegant bamboo stalk
it actually looks kind of forlorn from a distance, towering alone over all the rest.
Anyhow, I’m home in Shanghai now. But I’ll go back there again, now that there is a direct 80-minute flight.
Beer Here
Thursday, July 30th, 2009Qingdao, home of the famous beer (which you may know as Tsingtao), is a popular summer destination by the sea. So when our good friend Marty said that he was going to be there from the States for a week, we tootled up for the weekend. And what a relaxing time it was. There are so many ways to unwind.
First stop — the beer museum and factory,
where you could study one view of history
Chinese troops won the anti-Japanese war on August 15, 1945
and view photos of Americans picnicking,
or simply stand mesmerized by all the amber bottles moving down the line.
Of course, you would drink beer, whether in a cafe
from a sidewalk keg,
or carried home in a plastic bag.
You could share an ice cream with your grandfather,
or you might choose squid on a stick.
You’d probably want to see the old German architecture
and you couldn’t miss the modern Chinese buildings painted to look vaguely Tudor.
At night, you might want to fire up a lantern to carry your hopes high, 
and cross your fingers that it doesn’t crash into a building (as mine did).
Maybe you’d just like to stroll along the seaside.
However you choose to spend your time, you can be sure that everybody will have a good time. And I do mean everybody.
1.3 billion go to the beach?
Blazing Saddles
Friday, May 8th, 2009Last Sunday we just had to get outside. We had been spending entirely too many rare spring days indoors. Unfortunately, the lovely garden of the lane house we just moved to wasn’t an option. Call me Construction Mary, but demolition follows me wherever I go. Right now, it’s the house next door. Flying glass shards from the smashing of the sunroom and sparks from welding have sent us scurrying back inside for a couple of weeks now.
looking down on our garden
and the mess next door -- those protective cloths only went up when the rain started, not when glass was flying!
We decided to make a day-trip to a nearby watertown, so called because these old towns are perched alongside the canals that criss-cross the lower Yangtze delta.
We (husband John, son Alex, and friend Barbara) chose the town of Xitang in nearby Zhejiang Province and headed out in our car with our driver, Ou Yang. After about an hour and a half, we pulled up next to the bus parking lot, no longer surprised that in China, towns we envision as charming and untouched turn out to be major managed tourist attractions. But thanks to the handy signs, 
we made our way easily to the ticket counter, where we woke up the attendant and paid 100 RMB (about $US 15) each to file through the turnstile and enter the town.
Xitang is lovely, so lovely in fact that it was featured in Mission Impossible 3. Tom Cruise is something of a local hero; in one restaurant we saw his signature on the wall — through a glass window, as the room itself is now locked away. But I digress.
We whiled away the hours strolling, shopping in the narrow streets, checking out the street vendors, and eating local specialties (although we stayed away from the seafood that comes from those dubious canals).
boatman on Xitang canal
Along with throngs of other tourists, we shopped and wandered down the narrow lanes until they gave way to more recent construction, larger roads.
Finally, we chartered a boat for the ride back to the parking lot, waving at smiling diners along the way.
Back home Monday morning, I queried Driver Ou Yang. Remember that gate you took us to yesterday? We had to pay 100 RMB per person. That’s really expensive. I saw a lot of people in Xitang enjoying themselves but I don’t think that they would pay 100 RMB. Was that the special price just for foreigners?
Oh nobody pays that to get in, Ou Yang answered. We Shanghainese don’t have to pay. And anybody who would have to pay doesn’t go in that gate. They just walk in from one of the back roads. Next time I’ll take you around.
So… does anybody remember the scene in which the army is galloping across the open prairie and pulls up short when they come across a tollbooth? Yeah, well I guess we showed up in Xitang with a shitload of dimes.
Next time, I suppose we’ll stroll on in from one the back entrances, too. But I’m afraid if we do, we still won’t get to see the Five Girl Theme Park.